Be Good, Win Pizza

Here's your nightly math! Just 5 quick minutes of number fun for kids and parents at home. Read a cool fun fact, followed by math riddles at different levels so everyone can jump in. Your kids will love you for it.

Be Good, Win Pizza

Have you ever ordered pizza to be delivered to your home? You call the restaurant, a truck drives to you with your food, you pay for it, and you eat. Well, sometimes there’s an extra surprise. Last Friday a guy named Mike Vegas ordered pizza and spicy wings from Domino’s. At first he ate only the pizza, but when he finally opened the wings, he found $1,300 of cash stuffed in the box! It turned out that the delivery driver had taken all the money he’d collected from the deliveries before Mike and hidden it in the box, but forgot to take it out. Being a good guy, Mike brought the money back to Domino’s. They were so happy that they thanked him by giving him free pizza for a whole year. It just goes to show that being a good person pays off — especially if you really, really like pizza.

Wee ones: If Mike’s dinner had 8 pizza slices and 10 wings, which one had more pieces, the pizza or wings?

Little kids: If Mike’s order had 8 slices of pizza and 10 wings, how many pieces of food did he get? Bonus: He started the pizza on Friday, but ate the wings “later.” If it was 3 days later, on what day did he finally find the money?

Big kids: If a pizza costs $10, how many pizzas add up to cost $1,300? Bonus: If Mike orders a pizza every day starting October 1, in what month would he order the 100th?

The sky’s the limit: If Mike orders pizza the 1st week, then wings the next week, then pizza, then wings, then wings again, then starts the pattern over…in what week does he order wings for the 10th time?

Answers:Wee ones: More wings.

Little kids: 18 pieces. Bonus: On Monday.

Big kids: 130 pizzas. Bonus: In January, since October, November and December have 31 days, 30, and 31, which comes to 92 days; end of January brings us to 123 days, so the 100th day has to land within January.

The sky’s the limit: At 17 weeks. Mike orders wings 3 times in each 5-week cycle, so after 3 cycles he will have ordered 9 times, at 15 weeks. The next order is pizza, so the 10th wing order will be 2 weeks later, at 17 weeks.

About the Author

Laura Bilodeau Overdeck is founder and president of Bedtime Math Foundation. Her goal is to make math as playful for kids as it was for her when she was a child. Her mom had Laura baking before she could walk, and her dad had her using power tools at a very unsafe age, measuring lengths, widths and angles in the process. Armed with this early love of numbers, Laura went on to get a BA in astrophysics from Princeton University, and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business; she continues to star-gaze today. Laura’s other interests include her three lively children, chocolate, extreme vehicles, and Lego Mindstorms.